The competition we all face as businesses in attracting and maintaining anybody's attention is enormous. The platforms and channels we have at our disposal are seemingly never-ending and they're only going to grow. It's a tough time if you're in the business of trying to attract that attention.
It’s a pretty demoralising to speak to a number of people in business who’s view of how PR and communications agencies can help their brand extends to not too much more than punching out appointment releases. You have to ask what that does to enter the consciousness of a busy consumer, regardless of whether you’re trying to attract B2C or B2B customers.
I went to a great talk from a guy called Joe McEwan, who was speaking at an Entrepreneurs Forum event recently. Joe was head of brand at Innocent Drinks for many years. They’re one of the finest exponents of engagement with their customers. There were two things that stuck out for me. He said, very simply, that interesting is memorable. That remains something that drives their culture from top to bottom, not least in their social media activity. The second was that Innocent are always self-aware enough to understand that they can only ever demand the tiniest fraction and a fleeting moment of anybody’s attention. Let’s be honest – even a brand’s most ardent fans simply aren’t sat there waiting for you to say or do something. You have to earn that attention. Cut to the most recent pancake day and a task set by W client, Jif Lemon. You might argue this is a brand that only really has relevance one day a year. So how are we going to create something interesting and memorable for them? Pancake recipes? They have their place, but who doesn’t know how to squirt some lemon onto a pancake? And it’s not really going to grab fresh headlines to learn lemon and sugar is the most popular pancake topping.
So we had an idea. What would happen if we put the nation’s most famous lemons and sugars together? Could we, somehow, bring Keith Lemon and Lord Alan Sugar together? Timings and budgets, quite simply, didn’t allow us to actually see this one all the way through to its natural end, but here’s the thing about great ideas. They don’t actually need to come to fruition to, erm, come to fruition. And this one played out beautifully.
Knowing we couldn’t afford it, but having an ally on one side at least, we handed Lord Sugar’s PR representative with an ‘approach letter’ on behalf of our clients at Jif, inviting him to be a co-host, with Lemon, for a new celebrity interview-led talk show where they would quiz their guests, all the while prepping and enjoying pancakes together. Guest number one, of course, would be Piers Morgan.
Celebrity pancake tossing. An absurd talk show idea and one straight out of Alan Partridge’s repertoire, but nevertheless, the letter was made to look as genuine as possible. Lord Sugar saw the funny side and asked his Twitter and Instagram followers whether it had legs. Keith Lemon and even Amanda Holden loved it too, publicly supporting the idea on their own social feeds.
The spark now had fuel and up it went! As is their wont, celebrity-obsessed tabloid press picked up on the excitement and carried the story too. With thousands of likes, retweets and comments off the back of Lord Sugar’s posts, and the subsequent tabloid interest, it was a bona fide PR hit, executed off zero budget. But is the show ever going to get made? Well, probably not. That was never the intention.
Good ideas cost nothing (they can also cost thousands too!). In this case though, it was the cost of the time spent to craft a letter about an imaginary new TV show, fronted by Keith Lemon and Lord Alan Sugar. The same time it would have taken to draft an appointment release. What would you prefer?
Christian Cerisola is head of W North, part of W Communications www.wnorth.co.uk @WCommNorth
